Child sponsorship creates a unique personal connection between you and a child and their family in one of the developing countries where Plan works. As part of your sponsorship you can exchange letters and photos.

Child poverty has complex causes, and to really improve the life of a child in the long term, we’ve found we ultimately have to address the needs of their whole community and country.

That’s why the money you donate to Plan doesn’t go directly to the child you sponsor, but is pooled with the contributions of other sponsors, and is spent on carefully planned and targeted long-term development projects in the country where your sponsored child lives.

Projects like building schools, vaccinating children, connecting villages to a safe source of water, and stamping out child abuse.

When you first sign up to sponsor, you’ll receive a welcome pack with a photo of your sponsored child and information about them and their community. This will be followed by a letter or drawing from your sponsored child. You’ll receive annual updates and photos, so that you can follow your sponsored child's progress and find out more about the activities that Plan is supporting in their community.

No, definitely not. The child you sponsor will have a family of their own, but sponsors play an important role in the eyes of the child and their community.

As well as funding projects that help them and their community and country, your sponsorship can inspire and encourage them – it's amazing how a simple letter or card can boost children’s self-esteem and motivate them, and children tell us they love hearing from their sponsors.

To help us see our projects through to their conclusion, we hope your relationship with Plan and the child you sponsor will continue for a number of years. But, if your circumstances change, you can stop at any time and we will find another sponsor for the child. Children are usually sponsored until they are 18.

Your sponsored child will feel the difference in two ways. First, they’ll benefit from the development work Plan does in their community.

They’ll be more likely to grow up healthy, for example, eating a decent diet and enjoying a childhood free of disease. They could get the chance to go to a well-equipped, stimulating school instead of having to do exhausting, dangerous work all day.

What’s more, sponsored children play a leading role in deciding, planning and carrying out Plan-backed projects, learning valuable skills in the process that will stand them in good stead later in life.

These are life-changing opportunities for a child in a developing country. And your support could mean even more. A few lines from a sponsor, or just knowing that someone miles away cares, can really help fuel child’s imagination and ambition.

Once we have chosen to work with a community, we aim to involve as many families as possible in the work we are doing. We encourage the community to discuss who may benefit most from being a sponsored child, and children themselves are actively involved in these discussions.

Ultimately it is down to the child and family to decide if they wish to be sponsored. Some other factors are taken into account, including age, the relative wealth and status of the child’s family, and the need for approximately equal numbers of boys and girls to be enrolled in each community.

Even if a child doesn’t join our sponsorship programme, they will still benefit from the shared projects Plan supports in that area. This is one of the strengths of our sponsorship scheme – it’s not only the child you sponsor who benefits from your support. Because your donations fund community-based projects, many more children will benefit too.